{"id":51738,"date":"2022-12-22T16:44:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T15:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofmconv.net\/il-carisma-missionario-di-san-francesco-alla-luce-dellattuale-insegnamento-della-chiesa-5\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T11:22:43","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T10:22:43","slug":"il-carisma-missionario-di-san-francesco-alla-luce-dellattuale-insegnamento-della-chiesa-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/il-carisma-missionario-di-san-francesco-alla-luce-dellattuale-insegnamento-della-chiesa-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Missionary Charism of St. Francis in the Light of the Current Teaching of the Church (5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Proclamation of Peace<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Second Vatican Council\u2019s Decree Ad Gentes<\/em> on the Mission Activity of the Church emphasizes that Christ, the Son of God, was sent by the Father \u201cin order to establish peace or the communion of sinful human beings with Himself, as well as to fashion them into a fraternal community\u201d (Ad Gentes<\/em>, 3). The very moment of Jesus\u2019 birth speaks of peace destined to rest upon the people with whom God is well pleased (cf. Lk 2:14. Moreover, the Apostle Paul says without hesitation that Christ \u201cis our peace\u201d (Eph. 2:14). One can confidently say that true peace is the result of forgiveness and that every Christian \u201ccan make a great contribution to the prosperity of mankind and to the peace of the world\u201d (Gaudium et spes<\/em>, 72). As a true disciple of Jesus, the baptized person is obliged to be mindful of the words: \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God\u201d (Mt 5:9). In living the Beatitudes, the disciple contributes to the fulfillment of one of the Church\u2019s missionary tasks, which is to create community among people[1]<\/a>.
\nIt is clear that St. Francis\u2019 exhortation to peace has not lost its relevance The times in which he lived were full of disputes and quarrels and, as a result, wars. St. Francis often focused on this theme in his preaching. He drew inspiration from the evangelical texts to proclaim peace. He was particularly fond of using greetings such as, \u201cPeace be to this house!\u201d (Lk 10:5; Later Rule 3:13 FF 86), and, \u201cMay the Lord give you peace.\u201d<\/em> (Nm 6:24-26; Testament 23 FF 121). \u201cDuring various conflicts…Francis would extend the formula of his greeting to the dimensions of a sermon and often successfully invoke peace\u201d[2]<\/a>. St. Bonaventure called the Seraphic father an \u201cangel of peace,\u201d and this was based on the evidence of Francis\u2019 his own life, which was permeated with the contents of the Good News. When Francis himself experienced reconciliation, he wished that others might encounter the God of peace, too. Thus, the exhortation: \u201cForgive and you shall be forgiven\u201d (Earlier Rule 21:5 FF 55)[3]<\/a> was often heard in Franciscan preaching.
\nThere are concrete examples confirming the truth of these words, such as when Francis preached peace to the citizens of Arezzo, Siena, and Bologna. \u201cThe entire content of his words was aimed at extinguishing hatred and laying the foundations for new peace pacts….God gave his words such effectiveness that many powerful families, among whom the unbridled anger of long-standing hatred had erupted to the point of bloodshed, yielded to his advice leading to peace\u201d[4]<\/a>.
\nFrancis\u2019 journey to the Holy Land reveals his message, which was so characteristic of his mission, namely, that he desired a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Francis was not a knight of the Crusade; he was a pilgrim who was concerned with converting the Saracens\u2014\u201dmore by example than by word\u201d[5]<\/a>. This attitude made Francis and his friars \u201cmessengers of the Gospel and of peace\u201d[6]<\/a> and the words they spoke, \u201cPeace and All Good\u201d, were \u201clike the motto of Franciscan evangelization\u201d[7]<\/a>.
\nThese words and this approach resonate with today\u2019s missionary, because, as St. John Paul II writes, \u201cThe missionary is the \u2018universal brother,\u2019\u201d and also, \u201cHe is a sign of God\u2019s love in the world\u2014a love without exclusion or partiality.\u201d (Redemptoris Missio<\/em>, 89). He brings peace, through Jesus Christ, to those who are far and those who are near (cf. Eph 2:17).<\/p>\n

Friar Dariusz MAZUREK
\nGeneral Delegate for Missionary Animation<\/p>\n

For more information on missions, see the Facebook page: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AnimazioneFrancescana\/<\/a><\/p>\n

See also the Instagram page for the General Secretariat for Missionary Animation: <\/strong>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sgam_ofmconv\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> Cf. J. Esquerda Bifet, Diccionario de la evangelizaci\u00f3n<\/em>, Madrid 1998, 565-566.<\/span>
\n[2]<\/a> W. Egger, L. Lehmann, A. Rotzetter, Franciszek niesie pok\u00f3j, <\/em>in: Duchowo\u015b\u0107 franciszka\u0144ska,<\/em> Wroc\u0142aw 1992, file. 21, 1,8-9.<\/span>
\n[3]<\/a> Cf. L. Iriarte, Powo\u0142anie franciszka\u0144skie. Synteza idea\u0142\u00f3w \u015bw. Franciszka i \u015bw. <\/em>Klary,<\/em> Cracow 1999, 262-263.<\/span>
\n[4]<\/a> Ibid. 264.<\/span>
\n[5]<\/a> R. Manselli, Francisco de As\u00eds entre conversi\u00f3n del mundo cristiano y conversi\u00f3n del mundo isl\u00e1mico. \u00bfUna relaci\u00f3n at\u00edpica?,<\/em> in: Para mejor conocer a san Francisco de As\u00eds,<\/em> O\u00f1ate (Guip\u00fazcoa) 1997, 280, 282.<\/span>
\n[6]<\/a> F. Uribe Escobar, La vida religiosa seg\u00fan san Francisco de As\u00eds<\/em>, O\u00f1ate (Guip\u00fazcoa) 1982, 99.<\/span>
\n[7<\/a><\/span>]<\/a> E. Caroli, Evangelizar y contemplar,<\/em> Selecciones de Franciscanismo 18 (1977), 285.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christ, the Son of God, was sent by the Father \u201cin order to establish peace or the communion of sinful human beings with Himself, as well as to fashion them into a fraternal community\u201d (Ad Gentes, 3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,2186,148,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-general-offices","category-vocazione-missionaria-en","category-news","category-sgam-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ofmconv.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}